Sainshand

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This small city in the Govi is planned to become a major industrial site with mineral processing and a hub between the Tran-Mongolian railway and a new east-west cross-Govi railway connecting major mines with eastern Siberia.

As it is a station on the main train-line of the Trans-Mongolian line of the Trans-Siberian Railway from Beijing via the Zamiin-Uud/Erlian border crossing to Ulaanbaatar, there is little public transport otherwise. A paved road was completed in 2013 connecting Sainshand and Zamiin-Uud to Ulaanbaatar via Choir. No word yet if there will be any buses between the cities.

There are several trains that stop in Sainshand going either south to Zamiin-Uud and on to China or north from China to Ulaanbaatar. There are 2 daily trains from UB, plus express trains on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday with fewer stops. There are also 1 daily train and an express train on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday from Zamiin-Uud. Local trains stop at every town and city along the way and can have over 20 stops between Zamiin-Uud and Ulaanbaatar.

You can visit the Hamriin Hiid Monastery about 50 km south of the town (about 40,000 ₮ per car). It's a less than 1h drive thru the desert. The monastery itself is not much more than a collection of stupas, but it's in a beautiful desert location and it's an important place for Tibetan Buddhists and locals come here to aborb "Enerji".